Improvement in railroad-tickets



WILLIAM n. PnALL, or WASHINGTON, DISTRICT or COLUMBIA.

rMPRovEMl-:NT 1N RAILRoAo-Tlcxge'rs.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 85,692, dated January 5, 1869.

To all @cham it may concern Be it known that I, WILLIAM E. PRALL, of

' the city ot' Washington and District ot' Columhave invented anew and useful Method bia, of Preventing Peculations by Collectors or Conductors upon Railroads and other Public Gonveyances; and I do herebydeclare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompa* nying drawings.

Figure 1 shows a couponticket arranged in accordance with my invention, the coupons being .attached thereto as formed upon the same. Fig. 2 shows the coupons as detached -from the ticket.

This inventiourlates to an improvement in coupon-tickets forrailroads and other publie conveyancesg' and it consists of a ticket which may have upon its face' the name of the road upon which itis to be used, or of the cornpany issuing the same, andthe figures correspending to the day ofthe month, andalso to the month of the year; or it 'may have any other words or iigures that the person issuing the same'may desire., Tolthis ticket. is to be .attached a coupon. or coupons, printed upon the same sheet with the ticket, but Vwhich may, if desired, be upon a separate sheet and attached to the ticket in any convenient manner. When printed upon the same sheet as the ticket a line of perforations is made at the' point of junction, for the purpose of facilitating their removal from such ticket. These coupons are divided into sections by having lines drawn between them, each section designatin g a station or stoppin g-place upon the line by having the name of such station printed thereon, or by figures or characters of any desired form.

In issuing these tickets It is designed'to have ,the conductor or other person detach from the body of theticket the name or number of the station at which the passenger embarks and the one to which he is bound, leaving them connected together by the margin or otherwise,in such a manner as to identify them with each other; or he may detach all the coupons which represent the stations`-between these points and retain such coupons attached to the margin, and return them to the office from which he received the tickets originally, and

which at .the time were charged to him. It

will be seen that the -coupons thus returned 4will indicate the exact amount of money which has been received, and consequently the amount which should be returnedto the office, and with which. the agent istobe credited in the settlement ot his account.

Another and an incidental advantage which vis dueto my invention consists in enablingi'he company or person to ascertain at the expira# tion of the year or month'the'exact number otl miles which each way passenger has traveled upon his or their line.

To facilitatel the removal of the coupons the conductor or collector should be provided with a punch or cutting instrument similar to those now in use for punching tickets, the only change being necessary consisting ot' a change in the form of the cutting-edge, which is to be Ysuch as will adapt it to the form of tlze coupon to be removed.

It will be seen that, as a consequencel of the adoption ot' my method ot' preventing peculations, such operations are eti'ectually prevented, for, by requiring the collector to issue a ticket to each passenger, he can only make his account good at the .office by returning the coupon necessary to show how far each passen ger traveled upon each ticket, and consequently how much he is indebted to the company on account thereof.-

Having thus described my invention, what l claim,and desire to secure yby Letters Pat- The arrangement of a ticket and its coupons so that the coupons may be detached in the manner described, to prevent peculatons, as set forth.

WVM'. E. PRALL.

- Vitnesses: v

JonN S. HoLLINcsIIEAI), JoIIN S. -HoLL1NGsHEAD, Jr. 

